Sony might have the smartest lightbulb ever

If you think a lightbulb you can turn on and off with your phone is 'smart', then Sony's new Multifunctional Light should probably join Mensa.

It's packed with so many sensors it can practically run your whole house, with motion, temperature, humidity and luminance all under its unblinking eye. If you want to keep a particular room warm, it can tell your thermostat to turn on the heating. Feeling a bit balmy? It can activate the AC too.

There's an infrared controller built in, so it can automatically turn on the TV when you walk into a room. A microphone and speaker lets it double as an intercom, or it could read your voicemails as soon as you get home from work. Oh, and it plays music too.

You can program the separate sensors and parts to work together, so it becomes a motion-detecting alarm system at night but wakes you up with music and a gentle light in the mornings.

It might not be able to change colours like Philips Hue, but Toshiba's white LED light tech lets you change colour temperature to match the time of day: colder, bluer hues when you're trying to work and warmer, cozier yellows in the evenings.

Naturally it does everything you'd expect from a regular smart bulb too, so you can turn it on and off remotely with your phone and switch it on automatically on a shedule.

Unfortunately it's strictly Japan-only for now, and won't be launching there until the summer. Hopefully Sony will see the light and bring it to the rest of the world soon after.